"Wei-Xing," said Annya as she looked through her pantry of dried, salted meats, "We're out of fish!"
"Again?!" Asked the man as he put his book down and turned to look at her, "But I just got some fresh fish from the ocean a few days ago." He scratched his head in confusion.
"Well," she turned around to look at the old, wrinkled face of her husband and crossed her arms, "Maybe if you weren't constantly eating the sardines after bringing them home, then they wouldn't be running out so quickly."
The man slouched in his chair, "Alright, alright!" He sighed as he got up and walked over to the small closet in the corner of the room. Wei-Xing put on his coat and grabbed his long gillnet along with some of his other fishing equipment. He stepped out from the front door of their home and slipped on his sandals before heading to the shore. There was a crescent moon in the charcoal grey, morning sky and numerous stars were twinkling while there were hardly any clouds. Wei-Xing held out his oil lantern and let the small flame light his path as he confidently walked over to the shore within ten minutes. Once he arrived there, he set up his equipment and began fishing.
Back in the house, Annya poured herself some hot, herbal tea before she sat down in her comfy chair. She took a sip of her fragrant tea and put it back down on the little table next to her as she stared at a picture on the wall of her younger self when she was an adolescent. In the little painting, young Annya wore a taffy pink kimono which had a floral design on the upper-left section of the chest and she wore it with a wide, ruby red sash on her waist. In the painting, her skin was very smooth with lots of flamingo pink blush applied to her face while her black hair was made into a large bun with a comb-like, peach pink accessory wedged on top. She looked over at the small mirror on her wall and sighed, feeling a strong sense of heartache, as she observed her diminishing appearance. Her sickly pale skin was very wrinkled while her hair was fog grey.
"What happened to me?" Annya asked herself while looking into the mirror, "Where did all my youthful years go?"
About an hour later, the man caught around a pound of medium sized fish. He threw them into his bucket and began walking back to his home. While he was walking back, something odd started to occur. He heard a second set of footsteps as he was walking. Wei-Xing stopped walking for a moment as he tried to listen for the extra steps again. He didn't hear anything so he shrugged it off and continued walking. Once he continued, he could hear the other footsteps again. These footsteps almost sounded like wet slaps against the ground. The man stopped walking again and the sound of the other steps also stopped. He then looked around his area, dense with vegetation, and noticed that he was alone. The man continued walking again, feeling a bit uneasy.
Annya turned back to face the painting and thought for a moment. She smiled, "I was so happy back then," she continued, "I had many friends, a loving family, father gave me everything I ever wanted, and all the young men in town would try their hardest to win my affection. However," her smiled then shifted into a slight frown, "None of that was ever enough for me. So I left my town, seeking a more fulfilling life. I was hoping to do something extraordinary like climb Mount Everest, fly across the Pacific Ocean, marry a handsome prince, cure a deadly ailment, or even see a dragon. But instead of accomplishing any of those," she turned to look at a picture of her, in her twenties, wearing a wedding dress and getting married to Wei-Xing, "Fate brought me to you." She squinted at the painting of them as her expression quickly changed from sad to bitter. Annya stood up from her seat and grabbed the painting from the wall before sitting back down in her chair. She held their wedding picture in one hand and glared at her husband in his formal attire.
For the first couple minutes, Wei-Xing didn't hear the second set of footsteps but those later became audible right after he heard a bush being rustled. He quickly paused in his tracks and turned around to where the noise came from. His face paled when he noticed a tall, humanoid silhouette standing a few yards away from him with piercing, lime green eyes staring directly at him. The man quickly turned away and began running towards his house.
*Almost there!* Thought Wei-Xing, *I must return to my wife! She would be devastated if something happened to me.*
"Why did I ever marry you?" Annya asked with bitterness in her voice, "There's nothing great about you! You're lazy, a big slob, a total idiot, and, worst of all, you're an impotent bastard!" She sighed sharply as her bitterness evolved into fury, "I was a beautiful maiden from a promising family. I could've had any man I wanted, even someone who is royalty. But no! Young, naïve Annya went off and married your pathetic self. Why? Because she thought you were kind. She thought you were sweet, caring, brave, and that you were going to give her some beautiful children one day. Instead, all you gave me was disappointment and misery. I wanted you to come live in Kyushu with me so we could be close to my family, but *you* wanted to stay here in this tiny, middle-of-nowhere village because you said wealth causes pain and that we'll be happier living our lives as fishermen." She slowly crumpled one end of the picture in her hand as she gritted her teeth, "Now look where we are! We've poor and elderly without any family to take care of us! This is all *your* fault!"
While Wei-Xing was running, he turned his head to see if the dark silhouette was still there. The figure began running after him, causing the wet footsteps to be loudly audible. The man bumped into something in front of him, causing him to fall onto the ground and spill his fish all over the dirt. He looked up and was horrified when he saw a similar figure staring directly at him with piercing, rose pink eyes.
Annya quickly stood up and walked over to the kitchen, still holding her wedding picture in her hand. She placed the picture on the counter before opening one of the drawers and taking out a box of matches. She pulled out a match and struck it against the side of the box. Once a small flame appeared on the tip of the match, she grabbed the paper with her free hand and held it over the flame, making sure that Wei-Xing's side of the picture was the closest to the fire.
"Marrying you was the biggest mistake of my life!" Said Annya as she held the paper closer to the flame, "I am DONE with you!" Once the tip of the flame came in contact with the bottom of the paper, the flames slowly crept up the picture and turned all the parts it touched into ash. Once her husband's picture was engulfed in flames, a very loud cry could be heard. Annya quickly looked up from the match and her face paled as she immediately recognized the cry. "Wei-Xing?!"
A little while later, Annya led Hakue and Zi into the forest where they saw her husband. Wei-Xing was laying on the ground, facing the early morning sky, and had a large tear in his shirt. There were also three large slash wounds across his chest, still wet and dripping with blood. The cloth around his wound was soaked in his blood as his chest slowly rose up and down as his heart continued to beat rapidly. The two monks approached him cautiously, trying not to startle him.
"Zi," said the older monk as he motioned to the wounded man, "I need you to check Mr. Wei-Xing's vitals while I talk to his wife." The young man nodded as he kneeled down in front of the wounded man. Zi looked at the marks and was shocked at the size of them. He closely observed the man and noticed that he was still breathing. Tears rolled down Annya's face as she explained everything to Hakue.
"What do you think could've done this?" Asked the weeping woman.
Hakue looked over at her husband and took a mental note of his wounds as he was reminded of Yala when she displayed her long, sharp claws to him the night they first met. He then faced Annya, "I'm not sure yet. Judging by the size and shape of those claw marks, he could've been attacked by a bear." He looked over at Zi, "Please do what I taught you, my son."
Zi nodded right before he faced Wei-Xing and placed his hand a few inches above the man's bloody chest. A soft, honey yellow light, that originated from the center of his palm, began to spread all over the inside of his hand until it reached Zi's finger tips. As he kept his glowing hand above the man's body, muscle tissue around the wounds began to regenerate and started to cover up the opening. Little by little, strand by strand, the damaged flesh was repaired and Zi's magic allowed the skin on top to fix itself as well. Before everyone's eyes, Wei-Xing was healed and the only evidence of his slash wounds were faintly discolored scars on the previously damaged area. Once the man's wounds had disappeared, Zi made his hand stop glowing right before the elderly man suddenly gasped and sat up abruptly. The man looked around in a panicked state for a moment before he recognized the two monks and his wife.
"Annya!" The man stood up and ran over to her with open arms. The elderly couple embraced one another tightly as the man kissed his wife on the forehead. Once the two had finally let go of one another, Hakue faced the man.
"Mr. Wei-Xing," said the monk, "Is there anything you can tell us about the thing that attacked you earlier?"
"Hmm," the old man looked down and scratched his head as he tried to recall the events during that time, "All I remember is that I went out fishing because my wife needed some sardines and then I was attacked on my way home."
"Do you remember what your attacker looked like?" Asked Zi as he stood up and walked over to the three of them.
Wei-Xing faced Zi and shook his head, "Unfortunately, I don't. The only thing I'm able to recollect about them were their eyes."
"Them?" Asked Hakue as his eyes widened in shock, "You mean, you were attacked by multiple creatures?"
The man nodded, "Yes, two actually. One had bright green eyes and the other had bright pink eyes."
"Wait a minute!" Hakue scratched his chin as he thought for a moment, "Claw marks? Pink eyes?"
Zi gasped as he looked at his father, seeming very concerned, "You don't think she could've done this, do you?"
Hakue looked at him and shook his head, "I'm sorry, my son," he sighed, "But the evidence seems to say exactly that."
"Of course it was her!" Shouted Annya, "Those vile siyokoys are nothing but trouble. They attacked us once and they'll do it again!"
"Hey!" Zi clenched his fists as he looked at the elderly woman, "Yala would *never* do that!"
"What makes you so sure?" Annya crossed her arms.
"I…" Zi paused for a moment and then sighed as he looked down, "I'm not sure."
"Sorry to break it to you, my son. But Mrs. Annya has a point. We don't really know her too well. She might've come here to hurt the villagers."
Zi nodded slightly, "You're right, Father."